fredk

yes and no. Craftool is Tandy, but there are many, many copies available with Craftool on them but they are not from Tandy yes, Tandy originated the name Craftool, but see above. Early Craftools seem to be all steel & brass, newer ones are a cast alloy. Cheap copies are an aluminium alloy or low grade steel with alloy heads (the stamping part) To hide the low quality they chrome plate the tool and the plating fills in the detailing of the stamp. Its a lottery out there whether you get a good tool or not. I have 'Craftool' stamps from Tandy, some are good and some are rubbish. I also have cheap ones from Taiwan and China which also say 'Craftool', again some are good and some are rubbish.

I made a silly mistake, x 9, today. I'm making something to which I want to add a loop for holding a pen. I cut the loop pieces, x 9. Then I glued two of the opposite edges and clamped them using stainless steel bulldog clips. When the glue was dry I wet them and slipped them over a couple of dowels to mould them. I re-clamped, but tighter, using the s-s bulldogs. I clamped up all 9 pieces first then I meant to go back and put some lolly stick between the bulldog jaws and the wet leather. But I got distracted and didn't. By the time I remembered, a few hours later, I have iron staining where the jaws were on the wet leather and a little bit has spread further. Its no biggie as, a. these are being dyed very dark brown b. the bit with the iron staining will be sewn into a seam and hidden.

I very much doubt that: she has form, having previously tried to hire a hit-man to murder a fur wearing person. She needs a spell of incarceration and rehabilitation. I could fill volumes with tales of animal rights activists and the damage they have done here in N.I.

and I fell for it Just another finished goods seller spamming us

I'll tack this news story on here. I just hope its not going to set a new trend and we'll need to wear kevlar vests in the near future https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-50519899

Check your notification settings, you should get an email. I used to turned it off. I chose to only get an email notification when I get sent a PM. Also check your spam box and check that emails from this site are 'white listed' add a small amount of disinfectant to the water

I don't know the whys and wherefores but I've found the harder the blade it sharpens well on a plain steel. My local butcher uses a plain steel rod for sharpening his knives and they are razor sharp. I used to have a proper professional butchers knife. The only way I could sharpen it was along the stainless steel shaft of my spud masher. No stone would sharpen it.

For just a few ££ I bought a knife & scissors sharpening unit from a local supermarket household items section. It has steels in one slot for knife and another slot for scissor blades. The handle/holder part is design so that you sharpen at the correct angle.

tbh, no matter how sharp the punch or hard the surface I never get a fully clean cut hole. There are always fuzzy hairs which need burnt away

Try delrin or acetal as a block. I use both these as pressure bearers when stamping using my bench press. They are harder than HDPE or nylon plastics, but soft enough not to damage a hole punch edge

I use lengths of lolly sticks, cut to length and split if necessary. One piece on each side. The lolly stick lengths go the whole way around. For clamps I usually use 'bulldog' paper clamps. I prefer this style; The length helps spread the clamping pressure along the lolly stick

I've only had to cover a base a few times. Each time I just superglued the head of a ready-rivet on. I matched the colour of the head of the snap with the same in the rivet.

I make it myself. No percentages or proper mixing. I just heat some beeswax until its liquid then add some nfo, let that cool and see what its like. Then either more wax of nfo until the mix is a soft paste, like a firm butter, then I add in about a teaspoon worth of carnauba wax. The mix is then warmed to liquid and poured into large enamelled tins which have lids. In use, I get some mix on a cloth and wipe it on across the edge of the leather, at intervals, then burnish each blob into the edge and meeting all the blobs up.Some paste mix gets on the front and back of the piece and I just rub this in and buff it off. I've only ever done edges this way and its pretty quick.

Glued and buckstitched with lace is plenty strong for normal use things

I only use a beeswax/nfo/carnauba wax mix for my edges. Edge is dyed and then the mix is applied with a cloth and burnished using either a wood slicker or just a piece of linen.

What I would do is; use a fine nib paint pen to out-line the letters and dragon head - some workers on here use a small bottle of paint with a very fine applicator needle to do the same job. On the scales I would paint over them all and the surrounding area with a couple of coats of a resist such as 'Pledge' floor polish - which is actually a thin acrylic varnish. When that is dried I'd paint over the scales with my colour and before it had fully dried wipe it off the top areas using a solid block covered in cloth or kitchen roll paper. The block will keep the cloth just wiping the top and not allow the cloth to clean out the groovey bits

There is available an acrylic vinyl paste designed for this sort of job. Its used by car restorers mostly. It is usually a set of about 6 or 7 base colours which you mix to match your leather then apply with a spatula to the scratch area. The kit also includes some imprinted sheets with different grain patterns on which you press into the applied paste before it hardens. The kit costs from $3 to $25 depending where you buy it from example on ebay; https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sofa-Car-Seat-Leather-Hole-Burns-No-Heat-Liquid-Vinyl-Fix-Rips-Repair-Tool-Kit-o-/352706937011?hash=item521ef8c0b3 Note; apply after re-dyeing as you cannot dye this repair paste

I'll throw in my $2 worth (inflation) For over 20 years I made custom medieval style items with no maker's mark. Only year before last I got one made. Sometimes I use it sometimes I don't But - see below, Some customers do care plus its handy to see who made it in cases of returned work. I've had several items come to me, supposedly my work returned cos it was shoddy or falling apart. The customer swearing blind they bought it from me at a such'n'such craft fair. On two occasions there was a maker's mark which I showed the punter ~~ 'Not mine - his', on other occasions I had to argue that I never attended any such craft fairs - I never did attend them, punters found me, usually down in t'pub. I got the maker's mark stamp made cos customers wanted my stamp on it, so they could show others they got it from me. Its embarrassing really but its like an artist signing one of their paintings. If the customer doesn't want your stamp on it then don't put it on. I have a simple rule which has solved arguments in designs, patterns et cetera - who is paying the bill? they get what they want

No one has mentioned two things 1. gravity feed versus suction feed airbrushes. I use gravity feed, it needs less air pressure and a less powerful compressor 2. the capacity of the compressor - its rated free air delivery, it FAD rating. The greater the FAD the longer you can work at any air pressure

'ere, anyone remember 'Blue Nun' wine? was she a Smurfette?

Basically, no discount, but I may drop the price a tiny wee bit if I like the customer, or put it up if I don't,

I sort-of have, by accident sort-of, having to add something I forgot or customer wanted added in a. not tooling but just stamping b. dye not sealed, but dry c. if excess dye is not buffed off it gets on you, your clothes, your work surface ~ just as YinTx says d. I've stamped after a first light coat of resolene as a sealer, helped limit the rub off but still allowed the leather to get wet enough for the stamping e. you can buy pre-dyed veg tan leather which is toolable so you pre-dyeing will work too

In the UK toy guns are deliberately not the same size at all. Here a toy gun is only of use to make a holster for itself Although I don't make holsters I reckon the price of a template or stamp into how many times I'm gonna use it pro rata, eg a stamp cost me £25. I expected to use it 12 times, thats £2.08 per item. But I've now used it about 36 times = £0.70 each item and I'll be using it another 8 to 10 times soon. In your case; make more holsters and sell them. Say you make 10, thats only 5 bucks per on each one. By using a proper blue gun mold then you can be shure of the fit.

It does matter ~ a bit Acrylic is just the paint pigment. There are three carriers used; water, alcohol and lacquer. Depending on what dye you are using the paint will or will not react with it. Say you use standard Feibings Acrylic dye; this can be diluted with alcohol thus an alcohol based paint will mix with the dye even though it may have dried. So you need to put a non-alcohol based barrier on before the paint or accept this and just build up the colour with multiple thin coats of paint. A lacquer acrylic paint will not react with an alcohol based dye - if put on in thin coats, heavy coats will react badly Check any water based acrylic paints carefully as I've come across many that are actually not. When dry acrylic paints should be water resistant, only soluble in their original carrier in the case of alcohol and lacquer paints and alcohol in the case of water based paints. Poster paints are not an acrylic even tho I've seen some advertised as such. They always remain water soluble. But there is a trick to change that. Super Sheene is alcohol based and will soften and mix with applied paint. It is best sprayed on in light coats I use acrylic paints meant for plastic modellers, eg Humbrol, Revell, Vallejo, Games Workshop, Tamiya and many others.

As you are fairly new to this photography lark I recommend you buy John Hedgecoe's 'The Photographer's Handbook' This one: https://www.amazon.com/photographers-handbook-Hedgecoe-photography-Leonard/dp/B00BO7WGNW/ref=sr_1_15?keywords=john+hedgecoe+the+photography+handbook&qid=1573102549&sr=8-15 It was written in the olden days when we used stuff called 'film' in our magic boxes but all the techniques are still very relevant. I had a copy, now no.3 son has it and uses it. I reckon it is one of the very best reference books on photography ever written. It can be picked up for just a few $$ but its worth its weight in platinum